The water situation in Gaza is dire. Those people who are lucky enough to have any water in their storage tanks are trying to save as much as possible. Many people have had their tanks destroyed by the bombing and shooting. Most homes in Rafah, Khan Younis and in the middle and northern areas of Gaza have almost no water or electricity. Eighty per cent of people in Gaza are dependent on international aid. Most Gazans can't afford to buy water. Only today my colleague, Diya Skaik, returned to his home which he was forced to leave 10 days ago due to the intensive bombing. "The water tank which is the only source of water for my small family is crushed," he told me. "I went to the roof and just had a glance. I had to leave the place quickly as it is too dangerous to be there." A few months ago my father had a feeling something awful might happen in Gaza and bought a larger water tank. However, the water that we have is almost finished. This is despite the fact that we have cut our usage down to the bare minimum. I know my father is concerned about our limited supply, even though he doesn't talk about it. The water shortage in Gaza is causing health and environmental problems. Only a few months ago Islamic Relief provided Gaza's main water pump station with spare parts. The system is old and in need of repair and was already feeling the strain during the siege of the past 18 months. Today we provided eight shelters in Gaza with drinking water for the many hundreds of people who have been displaced by the bombing. Many of the shelters are overcrowded and have no access to clean water. We provided each person with 20 litres. No doubt, after the fighting is over, we are going to see vast amounts of damage to houses and the water tanks on the roofs. As an aid worker I am focused on coping with the here and now but like everybody in Gaza I am waiting and praying for a ceasefire so we can try to rebuild our lives. Right now our aid team is reacting to what is happening around us. However, we are very much aware that Gaza will need long-term help from the outside world to rebuild the devastated infrastructure. It will take the people of Gaza even longer to heal from the physical and psychological damage of this war.

Across Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is setting up emergency shelters in its schools. Despite two such shelters being cynically targeted by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza last week, many families still seek refuge in UNRWA schools simply because they have nowhere else to go.

The massacre on 6th January at the Al Fakhoura School and a second school in the Jabaliya refugee camp north-east of Gaza City killed nearly 50 and injured dozens more. Two UNRWA schools in Rafah, the ‘A’ and ‘B’ Boys Preparatory Schools close to Rafah city centre, have become temporary homes for nearly 2,000 people.

These emergency shelters were set up as thousands of people in Rafah fled their homes following threats by the Israeli Occupation Forces to target entire neighbourhoods lying close to border strip with Egypt. The families in one of the schools were evacuated from communities near the defunct airport on the edge of Rafah city where Israeli ground forces have been basing themselves since invading Gaza on 3rd January. Members of ISM Gaza visited the schools today and met UN staff and some of the families seeking refuge there, such as the Amsi family who have about 15 members of their extended family living together in one classroom.They also visited the UNRWA warehouse in Rafah, where they spoke to the Area Operations Officer. He confirmed that the supplies currently getting in are not nearly enough to cope with the crisis. Approximately 200 tons of aid per day is being allowed in compared to the 2,000 tons usually brought in daily by the UNRWA. He explained that UN stocks were exhausted a while ago and that the only food people now have comes from this trickle of aid entering the strip. Anything that does get in is distributed immediately.

At approximately 3.00am on Sunday 11th January, Israeli F-16 fighter jets bombed the buildings of the Dar al-Fadila Association for Orphans, which included a school, a college, a computer centre and a mosque, on Taha Hussein Street in the Kherbat al-’Adas neighbourhood in the north-east of Rafah.

Parts of the buildings were totally destroyed and others were structurally damaged. The school had been assisting about 500 children disadvantaged children. Nearly 20 mosques have now been destroyed or severely damaged by the Israeli military since 27th December. ISM Gaza documented the devastation.

The Rafah Red Crescent ambulance station is now relocating from its base in the Tel Zorob neighbourhood close to the border with Egypt, to Kherbet Al Adas on the other side of the city centre. Tel Zorob is in the area now being targeted so a planned move to the new premises was brought forward ahead of time. Numerous ambulances have been attacked by the Israeli military during the ongoing war on Gaza and 13 paramedics have been killed.

Israeli military operation is still increasingly killing more Palestinians mostly civilians. The victims are in contrary of the announced aim of targeting militants. Around 370 of the victims are children while 160 are women.

2. Heavy shelling in East of Gaza City resulted in the killing of many people and injuring several others.3. Continued artillery attacks on Bait Lahi town.4. The Israelis destroyed many houses in Khoza’a south north of Kanyounis where 24 citizens were injured by the white phosphorous bombs, most of them are suffering from third degree burns.5. Expanding bulldozering houses and farms in Khoza’a and Najar neighborhood south north Khanyounis.6. Killing a woman and injuring a girl in her arm and leg as well as wounding several citizens for their rejection to evacuate their houses.7. Continual clashes between resistance men and the Israel army on Al Rayyes and Al Sorni hills.8. Shelling a house belonging to Al Barawi family in Twam, north west of Gaza, four people injured by white phosphorous bombs. Injured people waited for long time until the ambulance men managed to reach them .9. One Palestinian citizen killed and ten injured on Khnyounis Highway.10. Targeting Al Ahli Sports Club in west to Nusseirat Camp.11. Targeting by war planes missiles a house belonging to Al Shanti Family in Nusseirat .12. Targeting a group of citizens in Nusseirat, four casualties. Ambulance personnel were prevented to reach them.13. Targeting a house belonging Al Zwaidi Family south of Beit Hanoun .14. Bombardment by two F16 rockets on farms in Abbassan south of Khnyounis 15. Artillery shelling in an open area near Jabalia refugee camp; three people were injured.16. Warning rockets at residential areas in Beer Al Na’a Ja west of Jabalia.17. Detonating an evacuated house in Al Attatra area where Israeli special Forces were inside the house. Al Qassam Brigades claimed one Israeli officer was killed and other soldiers were injured , while the Israeli sources have not referred to that incident. 18. A Palestinian citizen is killed and four other were injured, one of them is serious in Al Falouja while they were trying to get bread for their kids.19. Alaqsa brigades calim killing 12 Israel soldiers in an ambush south of Baitlahi. Israeil sources kept silent.20. Al aqsa Brigades shells by home- made artillery Soufa Crossing.21. Five Palestinian citizens were killed and 10 people were seriously injured near Al Sekka area in Jabalia.22. Destroying a villa belonging to Mohammed Madi in Raffah..23. Targeting a group of citizens in Baitlahia, one was killd.24. Bombardment on a house belonging to Mr. Amin Al Zwaidi for the third time, adjacent houses were affected.25. Bombardment on Fatouh street close to Mosab Bin Omair mosque , three citizens were killed and several people were injured.26. Air raids on Jabalia refugee camp where forty citizens were injured.27. Bombarding a house belonging to Al Najar clan in Khanyounis where Mr. Khalil Ahmad Alnajar age 75 was killed and seven of his family members were injured.28. Bombarding Raffah border area by 100 F16 to destroy tunnels; 25 houses were destroyed.29. Thirteen resistance men were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers south west of Jabalia.30. Recovering of the dead body of Mikbel Abed Aljarbeeh, an old Palestinian who was killed on the second day of the ground attack. The corpse was found rotten.31. Eight resistance men are killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Tal Al Hawa neighborhood south east of Gaza.32. The Israeli solders shot dead two Palestinian civilians from Ayyad family in Al Zaitoun Neighborhood and one resistance man was killed by a rocket in the southern area of the same neighborhood.33. Two Palestinian civilians, Hassan Shtaiwi age 68 and Mamdouh Shaiber age 18 were injured and later died in Al Zaitoun neighborhood.34. Mr. Jaji Ramzi who was injured on Jan. 6th and then transferred to an Egyptian hospital died.35. The total toll of the Palestinians victims have been 980 killed and more than 4400 wounded in the War. 36. Naval forces open heavy fire on Gaza shore and many houses were destroyed.37. A Palestinian Killed in Shikh Ridwan area as a rocket his car and 5 other wounded.38. Israeli allows some few vans of aids to get into the Gaza Strip. Hoever, Gaza needs thousands of food trucks a day.39. Israeli Leader: Afghdor Liberman says that Gaza has to be erased from the Map by Nuclear bombs like what Americans used in Heroshima and Nagazaki.40. Palestinian figthters fired 15 rockets into Israeli settlements.

NN, CBS and others use an analyst who appears to be in the foreign military on which he is commenting and yet don't divulge this fact.

It appears that one of the media's major "Middle East experts," Jeffrey Goldberg, is a member of the Israeli military. If so, news outlets should identify him as such whenever he speaks or is cited in reports or analyses -- which is often. Here is what is known:

After college, Goldberg – who grew up a self-identified passionate Zionist – traveled to Israel to become an Israeli citizen. He served in the Israeli military (the IDF), and worked as a prison guard at one of Israel's cruelest and largest prisons, Ketziot, during the first intifada – when Palestinians were being killed, maimed, and imprisoned in massive numbers.

Many of the over 2,000 Palestinians incarcerated at Ketziot (as at other prisons) had never even been charged with a crime; in effect, it is a large concentration camp. Prisoners were frequently tortured then and now. On at least one occasion (this may or may not have been during Goldberg's tenure), the prison warden killed two Palestinians in cold blood in full view of the entire camp – including its prison guards. [See our 4-minute video, "Jeffrey Goldberg: Pundit for Israel," to learn more http://www.ifamericansknew.org/about_us/goldberg.html ]

Israel requires its citizens to remain in the Israeli military reserve until they are about 50 years old. Since Goldberg was born in 1965, it would appear that he is now 43 years old, and therefore still in the Israeli military.

Goldberg returned to the US and became a journalist. As I said above, he is all over the media as a Middle East commentator – CNN, CBS, the Washington Post, New Yorker, Atlantic (his current post) -- you name it, he's there. In addition, numerous reporters, columnists, etc, cite him in pieces on Israel-Palestine. He is the journalist who, by happenstance, wrote the Washington Post's review (i.e. hatchet job) of Jimmy Carter's book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. He also smeared Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's book The Israel Lobby.

Today, Goldberg comments on the Gaza situation and, as usual, he gives many of the Israeli talking points. Goldberg's comments, typically, decontextualize the situation.

He focuses on Hamas as a "terrorist" organization, fails to give the very revealing statistics of the dead and wounded, and consistently posits Palestinians as the aggressors, despite the actually chronology of events.>[? The situation in Gaza is considerably different than Goldberg's analyses would lead people to believe. The reality is that Israel has made Gaza into the largest concentration camp on earth, and for years has been restricting its 1.5 million inhabitants' access to food, medicine, clean water, etc., to the extent that researchers began to find malnutrition among children. With the election of Hamas in 2006 Israel increased its closures, using, as the relief agency Christian Aid stated, "food and medicine as weapons." Numerous humanitarian groups warned of a growing, "potentially catastrophic" humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In June, a truce agreement was brokered that contained three points: (1) Israel would drastically reduce its military blockade of Gaza, (2) Israel would end its violence against Gazans, and (3) Hamas would end its violence against Israel. (To put this in context, in the first 11 months of 2008, Israeli forces killed 452 Palestinians, and Palestinians killed 31 Israelis.**) Israel violated the first term of the truce almost immediately, refusing to allow sufficient food and medicine in for the huge, desperate population, and then violated the second on Nov. 4th and Nov. 5th, when it killed seven Palestinians and injured six. The Palestinian resistance resumed its rocket launchings following Israel's initiation of violence. In seven years of use, Palestinian rockets have killed a total of 28 people. In the last 16 days Israeli forces have killed approximately 900 Gazans, the majority of them civilians. During this same period, the Gazan resistance has killed approximately 13 Israelis, all but three of them soldiers. Unfortunately, the media enable Goldberg's misinformation, positioning him as an expert on the Middle East, a neutral journalist, and unbiased commentator. The fact is that Goldberg is a partisan with a clear track record of devotion to Israel. If he is currently an Israeli military reserve officer, as appears extremely likely, then journalistic ethics and standard practice would require the media to state this clearly and frequently. It would also require that he, as a partisan, be balanced with an equally articulate commentator representing the other side. How can we learn for certain whether Goldberg is still in the IDF? This should be easy, but is not. I phoned CNN last week after he appeared there (once again, giving Israeli spin) and asked them. I also asked why CNN was not disclosing his IDF connections. After many phone calls I finally spoke with a CNN media relations person who told me she would find out. She eventually phoned me back and said that when Goldberg had appeared on CNN, the network had included an identifier with 3 points: (1) author of the book Prisoners* (2) Atlantic magazine staffer, (3) former member of the IDF. I had watched this segment and, apparently, had missed this third point. I asked how long this 3-part bio had been on. She said a few seconds. Regarding whether or not Goldberg was still in the IDF, she said she thought so. She said that people had told her that after you serve in the Israeli military you remain in the reserves for many years, and that therefore they assumed that this was the case for him. I asked her if she would find out for sure. She said she couldn't spend any more time on this but suggested I contact the Atlantic. I found it a bit disconcerting to discover that CNN uses an analyst who appears to be in the foreign military on which he is commenting and yet doesn't investigate or divulge this fact. I then phoned the Atlantic to try to ascertain Goldberg's status and spoke with their press person, Kate Cristol. Cristol told me she didn't know whether or not Goldberg is in the IDF but said she would find out for me. I phoned her again a few hours later, and she still had no answer, but said she would get back to me with the information soon. I'm still waiting several days later. I've left several voice mails, but so far she has not returned my phone calls. It would be appropriate for others to ask this question every time Goldberg appears on screen or in print. People may wish to contact each news organization and point out that it appears that Goldberg is in the Israeli military. Ask whether this is the case, and, if so, why they have not disclosed this extremely important fact to their viewers/readers. Being a member of a foreign military is a clear conflict of interest for a journalist whose job is to give unbiased information on the country he is serving and compromises his position as an analyst. Even in the midst of a major financial crisis, American taxpayers give Israel $7 million per day – and sometimes considerably more. It is essential that we receive factual, unbiased information on Israel-Palestine. Misrepresenting officers in a foreign military as journalistic analysts damages the public's ability to understand this urgent, life-and-death issue. We need better. ------ * Norman Finkelstein has an excellent commentary on Goldberg's book ** From the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which has not yet posted the numbers for December 2008.

Attendants of a rally joined by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Gov. David Paterson in support of Israel's attacks on Gaza went far beyond the pale.

On January 11, an estimated 10,000 people rallied in front of the Israeli consulate in midtown New York in support of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip. The rally, which was organized by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York in cooperation with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, featured speeches by New York’s most senior lawmakers. While the crowd was riled to righteous anger by speeches about Hamas evildoers, the event was a festive affair that began and ended with singing and joyous dancing.

Sen. Chuck Schumer highlighted Israel’s supposed humanitarian methods of warfare by pointing to its text messaging of certain Gaza Strip residents urging them to vacate their homes before Israeli forces bombed them. “What other country would do that?” Schumer shouted from the podium. Gov. David Paterson appeared on stage wearing one of the red hats distributed to demonstrators as symbols of the red alerts some residents of Israel endure when Palestinian groups fire rockets their way. Paterson cited the many Qasam rockets that have fallen on Israel as a justification for the country’s operations in Gaza, a military assault that has resulted in over 800 casualties and thousands of injuries.

Then Paterson highlighted the anti-Semitism that has followed in the wake of Israel’s attack on Gaza, highlighting the beating of a teen-age girl in France. “This kind of anger and hatred spreads like a disease,” Paterson said, “and one thing I've always pointed out is there's no place for hate in the Empire State.”

But hatred was plentiful at the rally Paterson addressed. Right in front of the stage, a man held a banner reading, “Islam Is A Death Cult.” Rally attendees described the people of Gaza to me as a “cancer,” called for Israel to “wipe them all out,” insisting, “They are forcing us to kill their children in order to defend our own children.” A young woman told me, “Those who die are suffering God’s wrath.” “They are not distinguishing between civilians and military, so why should we?” said a member of the group of messianic Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch group that flocked to the rally.

No one I spoke to could seem to find any circumstance in which they would begin to question Israel’s war. No number of civilian deaths, no displays of extreme suffering -- nothing could deter their enthusiasm for attacking one of the most vulnerable populations in the world with the world’s most advanced weaponry. There are no limits, no matter what Israel does, no matter how it does it.

The rally made me think of a passage in “ The Holocaust Is Over, We Must Rise From Its Ashes,” a powerful new book by former Israeli Knesset speaker and Jewish National Fund chairman Avraham Burg:

“If you are a bad person, a whining enemy or a strong-arm occupier, you are not my brother, even if you are circumcised, observe the Sabbath, and do mitzvahs. If your scarf covers every hair on your head for modest, you give alms and do charity, but what is under your scarf is dedicated to the sanctity of Jewish land, taking precedence over the sanctity of human life, whosever life that is, then your are not my sister. You might be my enemy. A good Arab or a righteous gentile will be a brother or sister to me. A wicked man, even of Jewish descent, is my adversary, and I would stand on the other side of the barricade and fight him to the end.”

Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and contributor to outlets including The Nation, Al Jazeera English, Salon.com, Alternet, the Huffington Post, and the Washington Monthly. A winner of the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Award for his investigative print journalism, he has produced numerous widely-recognized video reports that have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube. His book, "Republican Gomorrah: Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party," will be published by Basic Books in 2009.

Writing from the 101 callout room. During Monday there were some more evacuation attempts; it sounds like the one EB was on got about 50 people out of 3-4 houses, but they think there are many left. The one S was on didn’t have any luck, the road was completely barricaded and they weren’t allowed to leave their vehicles, so they shouted from where they were but weren’t able to make contact with anyone, though they’d been getting emergency calls from the area.

S came back startled by how close the army was. It’s supposed to be his night off (between two 24 hours shifts) but he now doesn’t want to leave the hospital, so he’s just keeping on going. Just now (a little after midnight, into the 13th now) two of the medics have made another co-ordination with Israel via the Red Cross to go into an occupied area to fetch a woman in labour. This *might* mean they’re allowed to reach her and *might* mean they’re not shot at while they try, but neither is guaranteed. Today I went with S to eat at his family’s house in the Tela Howa area. His sister R gave me a hat and scarf she knitted herself (there seemed to be a general opinion I wasn’t wearing enough warm clothes), his sister-in-law W interpreted for me, and his mother not only made me herbal tea for my cough, involving babunage (chamomile), maramiya (sage), and more puzzingly, zatar (a spicy powder normally eaten with bread), but then filled a thermos for me to take away with me. During my visit, his cousin arrived. She and her husband had to leave their Shayjaiee house after it was attacked with tank shells. She just went to look at it now and was describing the fire damage to the family, the sight of which had clearly left her shocked and fragile. She was in her early twenties, if that, and as she sat quietly beside me, tears rolling down her cheeks, she held a cushion over her belly. She is pregnant. I was talking to D today, who is also from the Tela Howa area. She is a lively second year medical student who volunteers with the Red Crescent Disaster Management team. Her family lived near a Ministry Building there, which was attacked on December 30. 13 bombs in a row were dropped on the Ministry building, causing all the glass in their apartment to break and all the doors to break apart, even the mirrors and the cupboard doors. Her family had gone to the window to see what was happening, and the impact threw them all across the room. They have moved out to stay with the relatives of their neighbours, who have taken in 3 families total. D says they are lucky because they have the basement all to themselves. I was showing S some photos of narrowboats today, including one of J’s boat in London with lots of plants and a wind generator and solar panel, plus a heron perched on top. “Gaza doesn’t have beautiful things,” he said thoughtfully. “Just what we see in pictures or on television.” I continue to give a crazy amount of interviews via the phone. I do best when asked to simply describe what I see around me. South Africa radio tend to want me to offer political analysis, when all I can honestly say is – “I don’t know what the hell Israel is trying to do.” EB tells me that about 25 Egyptian ambulances have arrived to Al Shifa hospital, delivering sorely needed medical resources, and – they hope – evacuating patients for whom Al Shifa doesn’t have the facilities, out to Egypt. Tonight in the hospital are 3 tiny new babies, triplets. They are sleeping soundly in their incubators, despite the tankfire that comes ever nearer. For them alone I don’t want to leave the hospital now; we have heard some terrible rumours of what has been done to babies, apparently deliberately, and there are some grim pictures. I was helping with the English translation of the testimony of the surviving Sammouni family members whose house was bombed after they were put in it by the Israeli soldiers (will post it as soon as possible), and how one, a 20 year old mother, found her baby had been killed by shrapnel while she held him. Someone was talking the other day about how the high birth rate amongst Palestinians really worries Zionist Israelis who greatly fear being outnumbered in this region. I made some comment about how families are losing not one but several children due to houses being bombed etc. And suddenly I thought – what if this attack is partly aimed at killing as many children as it can? Is it really possible someone in Israel has sat down and calculated how to do that? I just can’t begin to think about this. I am far more worried about being arrested than being killed. I would like to think I am not important enough for the army to bother, and if they come into the hospital I can monitor and document and challenge their behaviour if need be. (Cos a load of guys with guns are really going to listen to me, right?) But I couldn’t bear to be taken out of this small beleaguered place, and if occupation lasts a long time, one international in it for the long term is more useful than one who got arrested 5 minutes after the soliders arrived. I should probably decide this before the moment arrives for fight or flight. And I probably won’t. Now I’m going to undo all the good work of the herbal tea by smoking (in Arabic they say “drinking”) shisha with the Distaster lads amongst the broken glass of the next door Red Crescent social centre. F from Jabalia replied to me today: “hello dear, we’re fine, but the rest of the family r at [UNWRA temporary accomodation] schools and my uncle is at the area of the incursion and he’s still alive but there is no exactly news about him. Many thanks for ur efforts to help us.” There are a several of my friends I’ve texted to and received no replies. I remind myself what a hard time the Jawahl phone network is having functioning.